Why I’m Joining Greylock Partners as a Designer in Residence

Today, I’m excited to share that I’m joining Greylock Partners. I’ll be on Greylock’s consumer team to help find and invest in high potential, early stage companies. I’ll also be working hands-on with these portfolio companies as Designer in Residence. I feel so incredibly lucky and humbled to join this team of operators and founders — many of whom are role models of mine.

This hybrid investor/designer role sounds slightly unusual, but feels deeply complimentary to me. I’ve been an angel investor for the past few years, and love digging in to help founders and designers execute. I’m the investor who jumps in with design support — through design mockups, prototypes, and product feedback.

I’ll continue to invest in my role at Greylock, and beyond investing, I’ll advocate for designers to play larger roles within startups. The best companies empower designers with responsibilities beyond aesthetics or interactions. I saw this firsthand at Facebook where product designers were behind key inventions like photo tagging. I was fortunate to start my career in that strong design culture — empowering me to ship big projects in areas like user growth, Facebook Chat, and Photos.

Greylock’s team is composed of successful former operators, each incredibly focused on building enduring technology companies. They have an enviable history of investing in great companies, then supporting them over the long haul. This is very much a part of the enduring culture at Greylock, and the fundamental reason why I was drawn to this team.